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Californian Races Join the Fight Against Extreme Drought

As California is facing extreme droughts, the officials are looking for ways to save water. Cuts backs are everywhere, from kitchen to bathroom and lawn. But are there areas with room for additional improvement?

Indeed, as racers ourselves the first one we looked into were races. There used to be times where racers just grabbed a cup of water every mile or two. However, the things have changed. Runners are encouraged to use refill stations which allow racers to bring their own hydration system with them. This not only conserves water during races. Every little bit counts and when facing such a drought, this becomes hugely important.

Even though marathon organizers are not required by law to but they are making efforts to reduce the usage of water. They are implementing more and more eco-practices.

Conserving is the best way to get around to it, but they also have to stick to safety practices. They don’t dump the water remaining from their event, but donate it to local non-profit organizations. The savings are not small by any means. For a typical race with 4000 runners, the organizers prepare 2500 gallons of water. When the temperatures are mild, runners use less than 2100 gallons and the remaining 400-500 gallons are donated.

As you see races are demanding. Racers themselves have to take care of all of their equipment – their running tops and bottoms, appropriate running shoes, and. Getting the right equipment and maintaining the correct pace are hard enough, so racers needn’t have any other issues to sweat about before and during the race. That is why the race officials step in and take care of the water supplies.

Again, the problem is not the water that is used during the race, but rather the water that remains unused. Sure enough for safety and medical reasons the race officials cannot underestimate the needs of the runners and always need to have more water at hand than is estimated. The good thing is that this water is not dumped down the drain, but is either donated or used for irrigation purposes.